Come Back To Me
by Evillittleliars
Summary: With the news of her mothers cancer, Caroline is on the edge trying to hold on to the time she has left with her. But with time running out Caroline finds herself lost. She runs off into the woods for space and finds herself at a familiar spot. She doesn't know why, but she pulls out her phone and dials his number, wondering if he would even still care. KLAROLINE.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

It was like her whole world came shattering down around her and all she could do was watch. This couldn't be how it ended. She was immortal and her mother wasn't. And she knew one day that time would catch up to her and her mother would be gone. She would live forever caged within the body of teenager and her mother would grow old and eventually die. Caroline imagined that she still had a lot of time left. And now, all the time seemed to be swallowed up into a black hole. Time was gone. Her mother was dying.

Stefan held her hand, and could do nothing but watch as Caroline broke down infront of his eyes. Her tears were never ending and the pain was unbearable.

In that moment Caroline wondered what it would be like to turn it all off. To feel nothing. Sure, she would be a monster. But the hurt would be over. What did she have left?

_No..._

If she let herself turn it off, she would lose herself. And she couldn't do that.

Stefans grip tightened and she looked up into his eyes. He was her best friend, the one person in this world that has never judged her, who believes in her no matter what.

_Even after sleeping with Klaus..._

She looked away, _No she couldn't let herself think of him._

She looked back down the hallway of the hospital, in the direction of her mothers room. She wondered if things would ever be the same again. She knew they wouldn't. But if anything she had promised herself in that moment that she would never give up on her humanity. It was who she was, and she wouldn't let her mothers death be the death of her too.

Was there really nothing that could be done to help her? Was it all over?

If there was one thing she knew; she couldn't stand to be in this place anymore.

"I'll be back soon." She got out, she smiled softly and let go of his hand as she ran away. As she left the sights of the humans surrounding her her pace quickened into her vampire speed. She ran and ran and never stopped. Not even knowing where she was going, she just needed to get away. Far away and clear her thoughts.

Her mother had been in the hospital for almost a week now with no progress. She was weak and the doctors said it could be a few weeks, a month at most. After a couple of days they had moved her to the hospital in Mystic Falls. Caroline hadn't even had time to celebrate the fact she could step over the border into her home again.

She sped through the woods as fast as she could, her tears still pouring and her pain not ceasing.

Suddenly she stopped. She didn't know how long she had been running but she needed a rest. She slid down the truck of the tree that was behind her and brought her knees up to her chest, cradling her arms around them and burrying her head as the tears didn't stop; they couldn't.

She had to stop. She had been crying non stop. There had to be an end to this pain.

She sat up finally realizing where she was. This part of the woods that would always remain as _their_ place.

_I will walk away and I will never come back...I promise..._

She didn't know why, but within seconds her phone was in her hands and she had dialed his number. She breathed slowly trying to regain control of her tears. She slowly held the phone up to her ear and listened as the sound of ringing rang through her.

It had been months, she had never heard from him again after that day. Tyler had eventually told her of the news of Klaus' baby with Hayley. It had shocked her and hurt her more than she let on. But she also heard the news that his baby had been killed. Knowing that family was something he held above all else, she knew the hurt that he must have felt. But still, she didn't call. And he didn't either.

He had moved on.

But she hadn't.

And now she needed him. At least needed to hear his voice.

_Beep..._

She shook her head, would she really resort to leaving a desperate voicemail on his phone?

"Klaus..." she started. _Apparently yes._

"It's Caroline" she barely found the words through her tears but she fought through them.

"I know you left. You moved on." she breathed, could she really do this?

"And I know you promised to never come back. But... I dont even know why I'm phoning if I'm honest. It's just... a lot has happened..." she stopped as the tears broke through her voice and she had to regain her control over them, "My mom...she's dying. And there's nothing I can do. I don't know what I'm going to do."

"I know that you promised to leave and never come back...and at the time I was thankful that you were leaving. But then you left. And you never came back..."

She closed her eyes.

"And sometimes I wish you had stayed"

**-Three Days Later-**

There had been no reply. None. It confirmed to her what she feared was true; that he had moved on. He didn't care about her anymore, why would he? She was just a phase for him. When he said he would wait for her, that he would be her last love, it was just all lies. He had never intended to wait.

She was at the hospital, in her mothers room. Her mother was asleep but Caroline held her hand tight, never wanting to let go. She didn't know how much longer she had left. And she feared for the moment where everything faded to black.

She heard footsteps enter the room. It was the doctor. She got out of the room as the Doctor instructed so he could examine her mother. She waited in the all too familliar hallway.

After a few minutes a familliar face showed and sat next to her.

He embraced her in a hug and her tears started again. She hated herself for being so weak.

"I'll go get you some coffee. I'll be back in a minute" he said as he got up and left.

It was few minutes before she heard footsteps returning towards her. A coffee cup was held out to her and she smiled softly. But when she looked up, it was not Stefan who greeted her.

"Hello Caroline."

"Klaus"

**~I do not own TVD or TO~**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry it took so long to update I was so busy over the holidays! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year even if it's a bit late for me to say so.**

**Thank you all for the lovely reviews for the first chapter, and for all the follows and favs! **

**I, sadly, do not own TVD or TO. I wish I did.**

Chapter 2:

"Hello Caroline"

"Klaus?"

She looked up in disbelief, the big bad hybrid; who had promised to walk away and never come back, was standing in front of her, coffee cup in hand and a warm smile on his face.

Part of her wanted to cry, tears of happiness because he was here, in front of her looking at her the way he always did before. He looked at her like she was everything, even though in that moment she felt like nothing.

Part of her wanted to scream at him, because he left her and while he was here now the questions circled round and round 'Why was he here?' 'Did he come because of the call?' 'Does he even still care?' 'Is that why he was here now?' and the most consuming one of all, 'Would he just leave her again?'

Part of her wanted to grab him and kiss him and never stop.

Part of her wanted to slap him and punch him and never stop.

Part of her was happy beyond anything else.

And part of her was sad because even after all these months of trying to pretend he never existed, here he was.

And she couldn't pretend anymore.

"Why are you here?" was all she managed to get out. It was barely a whisper but he heard her. He sat down next to her, offering her the hot cup and she took it slowly, not taking her eyes off of him for a second. And when she looked at the cup, she decided she wasn't thirsty anymore and sat it down beside her on the floor. Still not looking away from him.

He didn't say anything. He looked past her down the corridor to the room he knew her mother was in. He had compelled the nurse before who told her everything. Liz had cancer, she was dying and by the sounds of things she only had a few days left. He looked back at Caroline, who was looking up at him, still waiting for an answer.

He looked up into Caroline's eyes and saw that there was no hope in them, and it killed him. To see his Caroline, the light that once shone from her was now dimmed, her eyes were red, the tears filled her eyes even though she tried to fight them. She was in pain. He could see that she was in pain.

Since he left, he had pretended like she had never existed. Because he had drama in New Orleans, problems that he had to fix to make his family right again so that he could be with his daughter. To succeed he couldn't have her as his weakness. He had to forget. He had to convince himself that he never cared for her. And block her away.

After hearing that voice mail, he realised that it was the biggest mistake he had ever made. Because Caroline, the beautiful light that shone through his darkness, his Caroline, was in pain. And all of a sudden all the reasons that kept him away seemed to fade away until there he was at the airport rushing back to Mystic Falls. To break his promise to her. To be there for her when he needed her. To go back for her.

He had to fight back tears as he looked up to her again and saw that she was still waiting for him to answer.

"I came back for you, love. I will always come back for you."

The tears that Caroline was fighting came pouring out. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. He quickly held her tight, his hand coming up to stroke her hair gently as she cried.

And for a few minutes, they just sat there like that as Caroline cried and Klaus whispered in her ears in his soft voice, 'You'll be alright, Love'.

A few minutes later there were footsteps approaching them as they both noticed this they pulled away to meet whoever it was. They saw Stefan looking at them, standing with a coffee cup in his hand. He smiled, but there was a hint of sadness to it and something else… understanding perhaps?

Because in that moment Stefan knew.

He knew the reason why Caroline suddenly decided she had feelings for him.

Because Klaus left her, and he was evil. He was a bad choice for her, or so she had decided. And Stefan, although a vampire, Caroline thought as a good choice. And so seeing them together, as he comforted her, he understood now what it all meant. Caroline was in love with Klaus. So in love that he left, she was hurt and decided that she needed something…good.

She was pretending to herself. Trying to fight back her feelings for Klaus. Trying so hard to forget that he was ever a part of her life. She had pretended to Stefan, to everyone, so that she wouldn't have to admit the truth, even to herself.

Stefan just walked away after that, Caroline didn't say anything. Because she knew that at this moment it wasn't Stefan that she wanted by her side.

"Things not good between you and Stefan?" he asked after a moment of silence.

She shook her head, "We're good. I think he just knows that we should have time to talk." And smiled, because Stefan understood. And after everything lately, she was thankful. Because perhaps she understood now too.

"I'm really sorry about your mom, Caroline" he spoke gently, trying to bring the subject up but when her tears started again he wished he hadn't.

"I…I just wish there was something I could do to help her. I researched everything. I phoned so many people…Is there really nothing that can save her?" she asked, her voice very quiet.

In truth, he had searched everywhere. He spoke to the oldest witches, the most powerful ones to exist, he spoke to everyone and researched everything he could. But…

"I'm sorry. Nothing will heal her. Even if you were to turn her into a vampire…the cancer would still be there and it would still kill her. The witches I spoke with says it's a very horrible and cruel fate, to die of cancer. It's a disease that even the supernatural cannot escape." His voice was pained, he couldn't look at her. He didn't want to see the pain that crossed her. He didn't want to cause her any more pain.

"I'm so sorry, Caroline."

"I'm sorry"

He kept repeating it, over and over. Hoping that his words would be enough. He had never shown this much emotion before, but he would for her. For his Caroline, who sat beside him completely and utterly crushed.

Silence fell upon them as they looked into each other's eyes. Klaus moved his hand and held hers tight. She let him.

She cried.

Her mother was going to die and there wasn't any cure.

And they just sat like that, until the tears stopped and Caroline finally stood up.

"When this is all over, when she…dies" she began, not looking at him but at the floor, "I don't know what will happen to me. I don't know if I'll be able to ever feel okay again. And I'm scared of what will happen to me. Of what I'll become."

She turned and looked at him.

"What it is like to turn it all off? To not care?" she asked.

He stood up then and held his arms out on her shoulders and she looked into his eyes.

"Caroline listen to me, you're going to be fine. I promise. I won't let you turn it off. I won't let you become a monster like me."

"You're not a monster" she whispered so low he almost missed it. Almost.

"I've done terrible things, Caroline. I've hurt a lot of people, even you. If there's one thing I'm sure of it's that I am a monster. And I will not let that be your future."

Caroline didn't protest. He had hurt a lot of people, including her. He had done the most terrible acts she had ever seen anyone do. He had killed and tortured for a thousand years. And she knew that there was a part of him that enjoyed the kill. He fed, and compelled, and murdered.

But she had also seen another side to him. She had seen him laugh and joke around with her. He had smiled, the most genuine smile at her and looked at her as if she was the entire universe. He had saved her life. She knew that there was a part of him that was human. She had seen his kindness, his strength, his loyalty. And it was all for her. She knew that he loved her more than he ever loved any other girl in his entire life. She was his first choice. And he wanted to be her last.

She knew that he was terrible person, but she also knew something else. Something that she knew she couldn't run from anymore. She couldn't hide anymore or pretend that it wasn't true.

She knew that she was in love with him.

**So I don't actually know how this whole Cancer with Liz thing is going to go on the show. If she could actually be turned or not, but I'm just making it for the purposes of this fic that if you have cancer even if you turned that it would not cure it, you would still die. Which doesn't make a lot of sense but nothing even makes sense on TVD anymore anyway. So let's just go with it.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/n: I'm horrible at updating quickly, but here it is finally! Hope you all like it and continue to read. In the next chapters we will hopefully see Caroline going to New Orleans and meeting the new faces over there ;) **

**Chapter 3**

**Six Weeks Later**

Klaus had left the same day that he arrived. He stayed with Caroline for that one day, he comforted her, let her cry, and held her tight. He told her that he still cared, that he would always care, that he never stopped caring. They talked about her mom, about how lost she felt and hopeless it was. They talked all day, they spent the day with each other as he comforted her and protected her from her own tears.

Then he left.

"Will I ever see you again?' she asked as he got up to leave. He didn't want to leave her but he had to. He had New Orleans to go back to and problems he had to fix. He had his family to protect.

"When you're ready love, I'll be waiting for you" and with that he was gone.

Caroline came home to an empty house, and lay down on her bed, holding back tears. She had cried enough today. It was hard for her, the hardest thing she ever had to go through. But she made it through her mothers funeral, she had said goodbye, and now she was alone. Stefan had walked her home, wanting to make sure she was okay. All of her friends seemed to think she was going to crack.

She looked to her bedside table and there it was. The envelope was staring up at her, she knew what it held inside even though she had yet to read it. She picked it up and looked down at it moving her hands over the writing that she had become so familiar with. It was his writing. His beautiful writing that read 'Caroline' and she knew exactly what was inside.

But she hadn't been ready to open it yet.

It was the day he left that she came home to find the envelope lying on her bed. She spent a lot of time wondering if she should open it, but she couldn't. She couldn't find the strength the read the words inside.

Her eyes filled with tears and she remembered that day watching him walk away from her, wishing that he would stay.

But she also understood, it wasn't goodbye. He was telling her that he was waiting, that he will always be waiting. And that when she was ready, he would come back to her.

She shut her eyes tight as she lay on the bed thinking about everything they've been through. When she first saw him, he was the villain. She hated him. She hated everything that he had done.

But that night, when he saved her life that first time, was when she really met him. Not the big bad hybrid, not the villain. But him. Klaus. She saw him for the first time in a glorious light as she drank his blood and she felt him. She saw him. And she knew there was more to him than just evil. As their story went on, she found herself falling even if she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't admit it. But she had fell for him. And she knew that he loved her, and that he was capable of love and therefore capable of being saved.

And she found herself wanting him to be saved.

She sat up and gazed again at the envelope as she realised something.

Maybe she was ready now. To save him.

She slowly opened it. Hoping she was right about what lay inside.

She smiled when she saw it.

First class ticket to New Orleans.

**The Next Day**

By the time the sun rose that morning, her bags were packed; she had already made her decision. Now it was the hard part; to actually leave. Imagining it in her head was one thing but to actually do it, to get on that plane and never look back, was a completely different story.

She wondered how her friends would react. If they would understand that there's nothing left for her in Mystic Falls anymore. Her mother was gone, Bonnie was stuck in 1994 with no hope of ever returning, Tyler had moved on with Liv, and these days Elena was too busy with Damon to even pay her the least amount of attention. And then Stefan, who hadn't really spoken to her since Klaus showed up.

She knew what was coming, nobody would understand.

'He killed my aunt, Caroline. How could you just run off to him after everything he's done?'

'Caroline, he killed my mom'

'He's a monster, you can't possibly think this is okay?'

They were all hypocrites in the end. Every one covered in blood, thinking that he's the bad guy when in reality we are all guilty. We all have just as much reason to be called a villain.

She still thinks about when Elena told her they had killed Kol. She killed him and god knows how many others to serve her selfish goal of becoming human again. And then act as if it was the right thing to do, feeling no guilt over the blood she had shed. The lives she took to serve her own purpose, a purpose that turned out a failure in the end. Taking Klaus' brother was low, she knew that. At the time, she didn't dare speak out against Elena because god help anyone who goes against saint Elena.

She loved Elena. But it doesn't mean she agrees with her actions at times.

She's not saying that Klaus hasn't done terrible things but, contradicting what she once said herself, that doesn't make him a terrible person.

We are all just broken.

She took a deep breath; she could do this.

After packing her suitcase into her car, she drove to the boarding house where she had texted everyone to meet her. She just hoped that after everything they've been through, they'll understand.

When she arrived everyone was already there; Elena, Stefan, Damon, Tyler, Liv, Matt and even Jeremy.

"So why did you call us here Blondie? I'm guessing it wasn't just for a good catch up" Damon spoke first, getting right to the point. There's probably somewhere else he'd rather be at the moment, Elena's bed for example.

I decided to just say it, to get it over with already.

"I'm leaving Mystic Falls."

Everyone's face turned from bored to shocked/confused in an instant.

"Wait, what? You're leaving? Why? Where?" Elena looked concerned, everyone did. No one was expecting her to say that.

"Care you can't just leave, we're in the middle of dealing with Kai and trying to get Bonnie back, how can you just leave?" Tyler sounded mad, Caroline felt her stomach turn as she realised she was about to make him a whole new scale of mad.

"I'm going to New Orleans."

No one said anything, they all exchanged glances and looked at me as if I'd gone insane. It was a few moments before someone spoke, and surprise surprise at who it was.

"Are you insane?" Damon delightful voice sounded. Sarcasm obviously, because his tone was far from delightful in any way.

"Caroline, are you seriously saying what I think you're saying?" Matt spoke for the first time, not sounding pleased at all even though he literally spent a whole summer in bed with Rebekah.

"My mom is dead, Bonnie is gone and no matter how much we try to believe there's a way for her to come back, there isn't. Everything is different for me now, and I can't stay here. Not anymore. And I'm sorry" She explained, trying to not cry.

"And that means you have to go running into his arms? Have you forgotten everything he's done? He killed my mom!" Tyler sounded like he was about to commit mass murder any second.

"Have you forgotten that he killed my aunt Jenna? Used me a human blood bag? Tried to kill us all?"

Caroline didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Her friends being all high and mighty, like they are all saints.

"Damon killed your brother, he killed and tortured innocent people. He abused me, fed off me and compelled me to forget. Stefan spent most of his life killing, I remember Klaus once telling me that he learned quite a few tricks from him in the twenties. He has blood on his hands, we all do. Remember when you killed Kol and god knows how many others trying to get to a cure that would satisfy your selfish desires? We are all killers. And yet here we all are, talking about Klaus as if he's the only villain in this tale. What makes us any better than him?"

Silence.

No one said anything, no one dared argue because they knew she spoke the truth.

The silence became unbearable.

"She's right."

Everyone turned to look at Stefan in shock, including me.

"We aren't any better than him. She's right. We have no right to judge her."

I wasn't expecting that at all, but I smiled at him. Silently thanking him for everything. Even if no one else would accept it, even if he didn't fully accept it, he would always be there for her.

She looked back at her friend, her old life. They still didn't say anything, they all just looked at her like she was betraying them.

Maybe she was making a huge mistake, but it was her mistake to make. And she had to see this through.

Because she loved him. And she wanted to be with him.

She turned away and headed for the door, the last thing she heard was Liv turning to Tyler and asking, "Who the hell is Klaus?"

She just hoped that this was a choice she wouldn't live to regret.


End file.
